This is the blog site for all who are interested in the theory of what may happen to consciousness at the point of death as explained in the books 'Is There Life After Death - The Extraordinary Science Of What Happens When You Die' and The Daemon - A Guide To Your Extraordinary Secret Self

Monday, 26 May 2008

Embarkation on a voyage of discovery

Well it's just over a week since I properly discovered ITLAD. A week of synchronicity (well more than a week really), mind stretching and dreaming. The book has been devoured (metaphorically) with space in between chapters to go to work! It feels like rediscovering an old friend with all the joy that brings.

Let me explain a bit about how I got here. I'll have to start somewhere, although it's all a chain and I could go back link by link to my birth (and before!). Never mind ... the easiest starting point is my holiday in India at the beginning of April. I was stunned, challenged and stimulated into thinking about things I'd left dormant. I was provoked by the whole idea of life as an illusion which repeats in a cycle of birth and rebirth for the simple purpose of living a better life. I witnessed a different way of life where people seemed to be less obsessed with material things - I suppose surviving was enough of a motivation. I came home determined to find out more about Hinduism and spirituality in general. It all seemed to reawaken my awareness of a bigger picture and a need to find out more.

Work has been busy - it always is after a holiday. I work with children and families in regards to mental health. The week after my holiday was memorable because for the first time I witnessed a child I knew quite well move into a psychotic episode. Psychosis is unusual in children. I had never come across it myself. This time I was very involved in trying to help a girl and her family manage a very frightening situation. I observed directly the way she was hyper-aware of stimuli and in her agitated bewilderment she seemed to be checking out everything with an internal voice who was telling her what to do. It was a fearful situation for her which left her totally incapacitated. She hadn't slept in days, refused to eat and was apparently afraid of water. I was at a loss how to help her but luckily the medics took over and I was spared that responsibility. She was given medication and became less obviously distressed. I cannot imagine what was happening for her "inside". I feel privileged to have met her at a stage before she was sedated.

The day after I saw her in hospital, I was looking on the intranet in a casual way. It's usually full of boring information but it also promotes events happening locally. I was struck by a talk that was going to be held that weekend at a local library. I have loved the Philip Pullman "His Dark Materials" trilogy. (In fact I read the whole of the Northern Lights book on a train journey to and from Durham!) So when I noticed that someone called Anthony Peake was due to be giving a lecture on the Science and Pholosophy behind the books, my interest was aroused. So began a process of checking on the internet (thank you Google) leading to watching the video clips on You Tube. The whole thing chimed with things I had read, studied and experienced throughout my life! At this point I knew I had to attend the talk. I was as excited as if I was going on a date!

Needless to say I was totally blown away by the ideas Anthony was introducing. (And he only mentioned Philip Pullman's work once in passing! I'll forgive him though... those ideas weren't as new to me as the way Anthony links things!)

Since then there have been other synchronicities, the main one relating to a dream I have had throughout my life. It goes like this:

I am aware of myself asleep in bed. I wake up (in my dream) with a start because I remember I have been given some very vital information (possibly by God) which has been entrusted to me so that I can make the whole world suffer less and be more safely protected. Only I can't remember what it is! I wake up (in reality) weeping and shaking, asking myself why should God give me of all people something so important when I can't rememember anything! Usually it takes me about 20 minutes to come out of the trance and the feeling leaves me deflated all day.

I had the dream again this week but this time I held out my hand to my daemon at the point when I usually get tearful. (In fact I must have done this really because it woke me up!) Instead of feeling a sense of failure, this time I was quite elated. I had a sense of "bring it on!"

2 comments:

WOODSPRITE: Thank you for a fascinating and enlightening post. My apologies for not focusing in greater detail on Pullman's writings in my talk at Moreton. In my defense on the previous four times I had done the full Pullman talk (this whole presentation was structured round 'His Dark Materials')I discovered that literally none of the attendees had read the books. I therefore came to the conclusion that there was little point in focusing in on this. I therefore took out many of the HDM elements for my talk in Moreton. Always the way isn't it!

However I get the feeling that this did not deflect from your enjoyment of the lecture.

I am also very interested in your observations with regard to young children and the seemingly 'Daemon' like manifestations that you have observed. All fascinating stuff.

Listen to Anthony's interviews on the on-going Schrodinger's Diary Project on Aeon Byte.

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Welcome

According to Greek mythology all recently dead souls have the option of returning to the world of the living. In order to do this they have to drink from the Lethe, one of the five great rivers of The Underworld. The waters of this 'River of Forgetting' wash away all memories of a previous life. The soul is then re-born on earth to live its life again. My book is an attempt to show that the ancient Greek myth has a potential truth within its fiction. By reviewing the physics of reality, the science of perception and the neurology of the brain it suggests that we may not inevitably have to cross into the world of the dead. This is a blog site for all interested in this new, revolutionary theory.

Please note that until Arcturus find a United States based publisher the only way that copies of Anthony's latest book, The Daemon, can be purchased is via Amazon and other web-based suppliers.

So why not order it directly from the author .... and have a personalised present for your family and friends ... or even yourself!

Go on, ask your Daemon what it suggests you should do!

The Itladian FORUM

If this is your first visit to this Blogsite may I suggest that you check out my FORUM first. This will ease you into some of the concepts and ideas that are debated on this site. This can be found at: http://www.anthonypeake.com/forum. If you like what you see there please register and join in.

Woodsprite has also set up a really interesting Itladian photo community at http://www.flickr.com/groups/itlad . Check this out ... shows what Itladians get up to when we get together ... not all deep philosophical discussions but lots of fun! Maybe join in there as well!

Some Interesting Links that are worth checking out

Link To Blogged

Other CTF Links

As well as this site there are two others that may be worth taking a look at. I have a MYSPACE site that has a slightly different approach - and contains some amusing photographs:http://www.myspace.com/cheat_the_ferryman

More importantly I have set up a site on LIBRARY THING. For those of you with a love of books (all of you I would suspect) may consider joining this excellent one. On the site I have set up a 'Cheating The Ferryman' discussion group. I have done very little on this at the moment. However if you join you could really help me by putting a review of ITLAD on there:http://www.librarything.com/groups.php?group=cheatingtheferryman&sent=1